Match previews / Paul Krishnamurty / 27 April 2009 /

Paul Krishnamurty believes that Stephen Hendry's fine run is about to come to an end...

Is Stephen Hendry capable of winning a ninth world title? A week ago, the idea seemed ridiculous. Its four years since he last won any ranking event, and a decade since his last Crucible triumph. And after a poor season, many of us doubted he would get through the first round, let alone reach the quarter-finals.

Yet just as he did last year, Hendry has reserved his season's best for the Crucible. Having won his 1000th frame at this famous venue in the last round, he now needs to beat Shaun Murphy to reach the semis for the 13th time.

However, while he did play some great snooker towards the end of his last victory over Ding Junhui, Murphy should be much tougher. Even against Ding, Hendry missed plenty of balls and on the basis of his second round performance, Murphy is in no mood to turn down gilt-edged opportunities. The local favourite improved markedly on his opening round struggle to thrash Marco Fu 13-3 with a session to spare.

Had this been played at any earlier stage this year, Murphy would be nothing like the [1.71] on offer here. I'm expecting a comfortable passage into the semi-finals for the favourite.

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